To think my cleaner shouldn’t bring her own child to work?

Having been the cleaners DD that was dragged around from house to house, icsn assure you shes not having fun either. If shes sitting quietly and not causing chaos, id let it go.

If she’s a good cleaner and the child sits quietly watching an iPad I’d let it go

There are far worse ways for a child to spend their holidays. Her mother is a cleaner - I doubt she has spare money to take her daughter on holiday or outings for 6 weeks.

Surely having a cleaner moving around your home is far more intrusive/awkward than a quiet child sitting on the sofa. She sounds great and reliable. That can be hard to come by so I’d allow this. No need to buy snacks like PP’s have suggested

What's the problem? The child sits in one place and behaves well.

Yes you’re paying for a service, but it sounds as if you’re still getting the same good service.

Your cleaner should have cleared it with you before the first time she brought her child, but presumably she can’t afford to pay for holiday childcare. It probably hasn’t occurred to her that it’s a problem for you.

Since the child is causing no disruption at all, I think you’re being rather unsympathetic and precious about it. The only thing I might be concerned about would be to make sure there are no obvious potential dangers to the child, e.g. a garden pond, though if the child just sits on the sofa the whole time that’s not really an issue.

It sounds like you want to keep your cleaner, so just go with the flow. You risk a new, childless, cleaner being less good or less reliable.

I think if it really is an issue for the op and if she is unsettled with a child in her house she should say to her cleaner, instead of worrying and being unsettled, if the op is in England/Wales then she will have this worry until September she needs to say something to the cleaner.

Right! Honestly some of these posts 🤦🏻‍♀️

You don't HAVE to allow your cleaner to bring her child to work. However it sounds like the child is not doing anything that will harm her or your property, so if you are kind you won't make the mum quit work.

Back in the day when I had a cleaner she used to sometimes bring her well-behaved 5 year-old boy - my own boys who were a few years older would sometimes also be there, and he would play quietly with them, and sit and stroke the two cats.

As you have no children I'm assuming the cleaning lady comes maybe once or twice a week at most for a couple of hours? If you want to keep her you'll just have to accommodate this.

If she's a good cleaner I would say that it's ok in the school holidays as long as he/she is quiet and well behaved. Put yourself in her shoes, and in yours if you lose a good cleaner.

I mean OP has made it quite clear what the issue is. Not everyone is the same and obviously she feels a little unsettled having an additional person in the house when the service she’s paying for is just for cleaner to be there doing her work. She’s obviously worried that while the child is behaving okay for now but what if at some point she got bored and went off into kitchen or somewhere and hurt herself while mom is cleaning. OP also doesn’t have experience of kids so she is not being unreasonable to ask about this. And the service is different as before she could happily get on with her work but now she feels concerned.

It wouldn’t bother me at all. A 10yr old who’s well behaved and not putting her mum off her work. Not a problem, especially if you value her. Coming with a young child that’s loud, running about and putting mum off then of course that is not ok.

I am £30 per day for holiday club and then whatever activity or outing they are doing which can be anything from £5 to £25. So if mum only has a few clients that day her whole wage could be taken with childcare.

For me it would depend on several things:

Did she ask?
Does your work involve things you wouldn't want a child around for?
How easy would it be to source another cleaner?

Yes it's unprofessional to bring her along and as with any other worker her childcare concerns aren't your problem, but what I'd do about it would hinge on the above

I really would. I often have DC here for drinks and snacks, my house is the house when neighbours children forget their key after school.
My DM was the same. Most of the people at her funeral had a story about snacking in our home and how open mam was.
Not everyone becomes upset at a minor inconvenience.

For goodness sake, talk about overkill.

MN at its laughable best.

Think it's really bad form to not ask you.

Ok… 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I’d probably let it go although might have been a bit miffed not to have been asked first - my cleaner asked if she could bring her DSS if necessary this summer for similar reasons and I agreed but also said I’d happily be flexible on days/times she came if that helped.

You really wouldn't.

But according to all the posters she's a penniless single mum who can't afford a childminder if she can afford to dump the Op and has a list if potential clients then clearly she can charge what she wants and afford childcare?

I genuinely wouldn't mind as long as it wasn't an all day job, 2 or 3 hours no problem, I'd offer them a snack.
The cleaner is not going to be there 8 hours.

The op is working. She doesn't need to be "showing some kindness" to a random child in her house.

The cleaner is cleaning the house?

Errrm, the cleaner is getting the perk of a free place to bring her child whilst she works.

The least she can do is bring her own snacks.